DSCT imaging of myocardial infarction

Electro-cardiogram (ECG)-gated dual energy computed tomography (DECT) of the heart may enable spectral analysis of the myocardium for areas of decreased blood supply in addition to morphological assessment for coronary artery stenosis.

We used DECT for evaluating a 49-year-old woman with known coronary artery disease and new onset chest pain. She had suffered myocardial infarction with subsequent stent implantation in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery two years before the current admission.

Three sets of contrast medium-enhanced retrospectively ECG-gated DECT images were acquired – at rest, during peak adenosine (140 µg/kg/min) stress and after 6 minutes’ delay. She also underwent stress/rest SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and stress/rest myocardial perfusion and delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Morphological coronary computed tomographic angiography reconstruction displayed as curved multiplanar reformat (panel A) shows LAD stent with mild intimal hyperplasia (arrowhead) and non-calcified plaque proximal to the stent (arrow). Short-axis stress (panel B), short-axis . . .

Full article: Heart 2009;95;180 doi:10.1136/hrt.2008.156216

Authors: Balazs Ruzsics, S. A .Chiaramida, and U. Joseph Schoepf